


Traditions

by MyMisguidedFairytale



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Awkward Flirting, Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, Gift Exchange, Gift Fic, Holidays, M/M, New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, Office Party, One Shot, Post-Chairman Election Arc, Secret Santa, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-29 14:39:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19021969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyMisguidedFairytale/pseuds/MyMisguidedFairytale
Summary: Kurapika had compared the annual Hunter Association gift exchange to the fourth stage of the 287th Hunter Exam. It might as well have been.





	Traditions

**Author's Note:**

> _Traditions_ was originally written and published on December 31, 2015 on [tumblr](https://cheadle-yorkshire.tumblr.com/post/155217449393/hxhsecretsanta-title-traditions-recipient).
> 
> Everything below is preserved as it was originally posted:
> 
> **Title** : Traditions  
>  **Recipient** : @motolchild  
>  **From** : @mymisguidedfairytale  
>  **Pairing** : Leorio/Kurapika  
>  **Rating** : PG  
>  **Word Count** : 1,932 words  
>  **Summary** : Kurapika had compared the annual Hunter Association gift exchange to the fourth stage of the 287th Hunter Exam. It might as well have been.  
>  **Author’s Note** : Written for the hxhsecretsanta gift exchange. Takes place post-Chairman Election arc. I hope you enjoy! :D

_**Traditions** _

He’s the one who convinces Kurapika to sign up in the first place. “It’ll be fun,” Leorio tells him, with a winning smile, as he signs his name first. “And it’ll be a good chance for you to get closer to your new co-workers.”  


“A gift exchange is hardly what I’d consider a good idea for either.” Still, he adds his name after Leorio’s, and gives the rest of the list a quick once-over. All of the other Zodiacs have already signed up, along with a good number of the other Hunters who happen to work in the building or live in the area—according to Cheadle, the gift exchange and accompanying New Year’s Eve party are an Association tradition. And Leorio isn’t one to mess with tradition, especially ones that involve free gifts and an open bar.  


“They’ll give us our targets in a week,” Leorio says, watching the way Kurapika’s shoulders stiffen and then shake, as if in silent amusement.  


“Targets, really?” They begin to walk, together, out of the lobby and back towards their offices, where another Zodiac Twelve meeting is about to begin. “You make it sound like some sort of perilous mission. Like the fourth stage of our Hunter Exam.”  


“Be glad it’s not,” he says. “You had _Tonpa_ for your target then.”  


Kurapika makes a face. “At least the other Hunters have dignity. And tact. And some semblance of refinement.”  


Leorio thinks about the Hunters he knows, and replies flatly, “It took Saiyuu a month to realize Ging and Pariston had been replaced.”  


“Then if I get his name, he’s getting coal.”

A bubble of laughter makes its way out of his throat, and Leorio quickly tamps it down as they enter the conference room for their meeting. He hopes they both find the exchange fun—he knows Kurapika has taken well to his new work with the Zodiacs, but he still hasn’t quite settled in as well as Leorio himself has.  


“Don’t worry,” he tells Kurapika with another smile. “I’ll be here to help if you need it.”

* * *

Kurapika had compared the annual Hunter Association gift exchange to the fourth stage of the 287th Hunter Exam. Leorio had thought it was a funny joke, a coincidental parallel, but ultimately beside the point.  


It might as well have been.  


Kurapika slinks around the desks in the fifth floor offices, his _Nen_ suppressed, and looking for all the world like he’s never actually tried to do espionage in his life. He sticks out like a sore thumb, and Leorio has been tracking his progress from the doorway of the break room, a can of half-finished soda in one hand and his other in his pocket, clutching a crumpled-up piece of paper.  


It would almost be funny—Cutie Beauty had come around and presented them all with a fishbowl containing sealed notes, each with the name of another Hunter, and Leorio had drawn one, same as the others—and once Kurapika had seen his, he’d bolted for this floor, wearing an expression like he was going to war instead of to a fancy party a week from now. It didn’t take a Hunter’s intellect to know that Kurapika’s target was one of the Zodiacs, and one Kurapika held in high esteem and didn’t know all that well. Really, that about cut the list in half right there, and as Kurapika inched closer to one of the desks, littered with purses and candy wrappers, Leorio decides to put him out of his misery and join him in the office.  


“Kurapika.” When Leorio says his name, he jumps, but recovers quickly.  


“Leorio.” He spins, his hands behind his back. He only looks a _fraction_ guilty. “What brings you here?”  


“Stopping you from doing something stupid.” He waves Kurapika over, who casts one last, fleeting glance towards the desk before joining him in the middle of the office floor. “Don’t go through your co-workers desks. You think that’ll tell you anything important? Mine has nothing but…pens and magazines and spare change! Sure, that tells you something about me, but not what I’d want as a gift.”  


“I need more information,” Kurapika says, with the patience of someone explaining something to a small child. “I have to get this right. I cannot fail.”  


“Everyone likes gift cards. Or chocolates.” Leorio shrugs, watching Kurapika for his reaction. “Would you mind getting either of those?”  


“I am not expecting much,” he says, and Leorio feels a stab of _something_ , deep in his stomach. He turns to Kurapika, his mouth already open to speak, to refute his every word of self-deprecation, when the other man has already returned his laser-like focus to the task of selecting the perfect gift for his mystery target. Whose identity Leorio still doesn’t even know.  


“Are you going to tell me who it is, or am I going to have to guess?” He succesfully draws Kurapika’s attention away from the desk again, and he squints as he spots a rabbit-shaped stationary pad on top. “I’m sure they’ll like anything you get them.”  


“It’s Piyon,” Kurapika answers after a pause, and Leorio is glad he told him without any more digging on his part. “Since she’s _running_ the entire event, I wanted to make sure her gift was something special. I don’t want to let her down.”  


“That’s…understandable,” Leorio says. “You’re still taking it a little too seriously. Have you ever celebrated the holidays before? Any traditions of your own?”  


“Of course not. The Kuruta lived in the tropics. We had no seasons, and no concept of your Christmas.”  


“You must have had _something_.”  


“We did celebrate the solstices and equinoxes,” Kurapika says, slowly, and a strangely nostalgic expression crosses his face. “Once, when I was about seven, there was a lunar eclipse during one—a Blood Moon. Everyone’s eyes changed, glowing red just like the moon. We had a new tradition after that year.”  


A silence follows, and when Kurapika casts a slow, soft smile up at Leorio, he copies it with one of his own. “If you can’t come up with a gift idea,” Leorio says, “you could always give your recipient an exprerience, instead? That’s what I’m doing for mine.”  


“Any ideas?”  


“Rabbits like carrots,” Leorio suggests, and cracks a grin at Kurapika’s flat expression. “Geez, I’d ask your secret santa to give you a sense of humor for _your_ gift.”  


“I don’t care what I get,” is Kurapika’s immediate reply, and Leorio has to tamp down another refutal at that.  


“Well, I’d like to think whoever drew _your_ name is putting as much effort into this as you are.” Leorio doesn’t say more than that, but he smiles at Kurapika, and feels a sudden lightness in his chest when Kurapika smiles back.  


“Thanks, Leorio. I think you’ve given me some ideas after all,” he says, and turns to leave the room.  


Leorio grasps the piece of paper in his pocket a little more tightly. In some ways he’d lucked out with his target, but in others, like Kurapika had said, he didn’t want to let them down.  


He pulls out the paper and looks at it, straightening the crumpled edges. He reads the name again. _Kurapika_.

* * *

The party is in full swing, even only an hour after it starts—Leorio arrives on-time, wearing his nicest suit and accepting a gaudy hat of holographic gold paper from someone manning the entry—and he loiters around the bar, enjoying a flute of champagne and watching the other Hunters exchange presents. The results are alternatively heartwarming or comedic—he watches Kanzai gift Cluck with a large bouquet of flowers, and Cutie Beauty gives spa tickets to a flustered Mizaistom—but so far, Kurapika has yet to show.  


A Hunter Leorio doesn’t know passes by and gives him his gift—a nice silk tie, something work appropriate in festive colors—and tells him how much he admired Leorio’s punching Ging at the past Election. A few others give him similar praise, or tell him they voted for him, and Leorio waves away their commendations with uncharacteristic modesty.  


He checks his watch, and returns to keeping an eye out, both for him and for Piyon—who is easy to spot in a silver dress, her rabbit ears bouncing around the crowd as she plays hostess—and barely a minute later, he finally spots Kurapika, cutting a path through the crowd. Unlike before, the expression on his face is calm, but no less serious. He approaches Piyon, taking her elbow and leading her to the side, speaking closely before handing her something. Her reaction is to throw her arms around his shoulders, her expression elated, his turning to surprise and then embarrassment. They talk some more, and when Kurapika finally turns away, Leorio waves at him from his spot across the room, uncaring that people are staring as he waves harder and shouts Kurapika’s name.  


“You’re late, you know,” he tells Kurapika.

“Happy New Year to you, too,” is Kurapika’s reply.  


“So what did you get her? She looked happy.”  


“I gave her a recording of the Kuruta language, translating the thousand most common English words and including some of our common stories and prayers. I offered to join her in the language lab later to go over it even more in-depth, and cover the written script.” He relaxes his shoulders slightly. Unlike Leorio, he isn’t wearing a hat or any of the other gaudy glasses or beads available to help ring in the new year. Now that his task is done, he looks more than a little uncomfortable at the party.  


“That’s kind of you,” Leorio says, genuinely surprised that the other would offer such a thing.  


“The language would otherwise die out. Piyon’s specialty is in this exact field. If there is one who should learn and preserve it, it would be her.”  


They spend a few moments in companionable silence, until Leorio speaks up again. “You can’t wait to get out of here, I bet.”  


“I…” He pauses. “Is it that obvious? I spent all day making the recordings, and I’d really prefer a quieter night than this spectacle.”  


“I’ve got just the thing. I had a restaurant near here hold a reservation all night, just in case. Come on, I’m taking you to dinner.”  


“I can’t.” He sounds apologetic, and Leorio has to laugh a little at the irony. “I have to wait for my gift.”  


“Kurapika.” Leorio says his name slowly, and watches as Kurapika fixes his attention on him, a hint of realization slowly dawning. Off to the side, someone in the crowd blows a noisemaker, but Leorio barely hears it. “ _I’m_ the one who drew your name. And, with your permission, we are going to get out of here and you are going to let me take care of you for the rest of the night, starting with dinner. Sound good?”  


“It does.” He follows Leorio across the floor, towards the entrance, and away from the confetti and the music and the balloons tied up at the ceiling, waiting to be dropped. “It sounds like the start of a great tradition.”  


At that, Leorio stops, a smile blossoming over his face. “Happy New Year, Kurapika.”  


“Happy New Year, Leorio.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1) This story is an unofficial sequel to _[Friendly Company](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18865615)_ , and a spiritual sequel to _[Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot?](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18688912)_ , which details a prior Hunter Association New Year’s Party.
> 
> 2) Thank you for reading! I would appreciate and value your comments! Even if it is early, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! :D


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